Trending Tech Tools 2020 Edition Whats New Whats

Trending Tech Tools 2020 Edition What’s New, What’s Improved, & What’s on the Horizon for AT & Accessibility Tools Update Accessing Higher Ground - 2021 (Feb) Rachel Kruzel - Texthelp

Looking for more Information? Visit us at our AHG Watch Party site to request more information or visit us at text. help/9 bp 3 qg

Today’s Agenda ❏ Noteworthy Updates ❏ Education Landscape for spring and beyond ❏ Budgets & Funding ❏ Technological updates

Education Landscape Update

Where Are We Going?

Some Bumps Along the Way

Hopefully We’re Moving Towards This Instead

“Techquity” ● Technology + Equity = Techquity ● Rumbles but not as central as earlier ● Funding? Action towards access? ● Will this be addressed systematically at some point?

Learning Loss ● Has there and to what degree has there been learning loss over the last year? ● Content taught online is not the same? ● Techquity divide responsible? ● True for higher ed students? ○ To what amount/level?

Budgets & Funding

Budgets in Higher Ed ● Budgets are continuing to be squeezed ● Cuts are projected for FY 22 ● Budgeting for next year has already been underway and may be set ● Decreases, cuts, and tough decisions

CRRSAA Funds (New CARES Act) ● ~$22. 7 Billion (but not enough) ● At least the same amount of direct aid to students during the last round is required to go to them again ● Remaining funds - little to no limitations on guidelines

Getting a Piece of the Pie ● What is the money going towards? ● Who on campus is overseeing the spending? ● Can you tie department priorities (AT) to this funding (if it’s slated to get cut)? ● Replace budget? ● Equity and online learning? ● Accessibility?

More Funds Coming? ● Biden’s $1. 9 Trillion package ● Proposes $35 Billion more for HE (nearly $40 B) ● Allocated to: ○ Public institutions, Community colleges, Public & Private HBCUs, minority serving institutions ○ No mention of Private institutions ● Use for health initiatives and supports, distance learning, emergency grants to students ● Half emergency financial aid grants to students

Technological Updates

Lockdown Browsers ● The heat is coming their way! ● Schools have recognized accessibility and equity issues ● Less need for these tools in the fall ○ But online learning is not going away ● What will be done/used instead? ● How do we ensure this doesn’t happen again?

Echo Smartpens ● Despite reassurance… Echo Smartpen has been discontinued ○ Livescribe will continue to support until… ● Echo 2 is launched ● Release is rumored to be March - April ● Limited information available

Read&Write & Brightspace D 2 L Update ● Continued work around rewrite of Read&Write and PDF Reader ● Read&Write update in response to D 2 L content ○ Cross Frames ● Toolbar embeds in each frame of content ● Increased functionality online

Brightspace Read&Write Update

Content in Cross Frames

Equat. IO Web Toolbar ● Released late January ● Full toolbar in many websites ● Make content in more places online with Equat. IO ○ More Ed. Tech sites faculty may be using ○ LMS’s where the tool didn’t work as easily before

New Equat. IO Toolbar Online

Dragon Changes ● Dragon Professional Individual (DPI) price increase is still “a go” ○ Increased operational costs and development ○ ~$300 to ~$500 ○ Not being discontinued and continues to be developed ● Great news!

Dragon Changes cont. ● Focus is moving to Dragon Professional Anywhere (DPA) subscription ○ ~$40/mon or ~$500/year ○ Pricing for academic and those with a disability not finalized ● Less features, less robust ○ “Lightweight recognition product” ○ Different user group ● Nuance continues to work with our field and advocates

Zoom Built-In Captioning ● Automatic, built-in captions/live transcripts for higher ed are live ● Zoom Admins/ITS may need to enable it within the settings ● Health care and free accounts - not included

Voice Dream Reader for Mac ● Voice Dream Reader is coming to Mac ○ No longer just i. Pad and i. Phone ● Soon to be released for laptop/desktop ○ TBD

Otter. AI with Google Hangouts ● Live Notes and Captions within Google Meet ● Chrome Extension ● Transcript saves to your Otter account ● Add highlights, images, and notes to transcript search by keyword and share ● Available on all plans

HATHI Trust - Emergency Temporary Access Service ● “Member libraries that suffer an unexpected or involuntary, temporary disruption to normal operations” ● “Member library patrons [can] obtain lawful access to specific digital materials in Hathi. Trust that correspond to physical books held by their own library”

Questions

Thank you! Rachel Kruzel Territory Sales Director (MN, MO, IA, IL, WI) Texthelp r. kruzel@texthelp. com 651 -245 -3128 @TH_Rachel. K